Changes at SI

It's been interesting noting the changes in SI since Paul Fichtenbaum took over from Terry McDonnell.

Other than a few notable errors (Baylor unis/graphics issues/stating that Sanchez and Romo hadn't won playoff games), the biggest thing I've noticed is an inclination to not featuring the "news of the week" on the cover and go with something else (Goodell this week, Michael at 50, Spring Football). Hockey seems to have been banished and even nuts and bolts coverage of college hoops seems to have taken a back seat. The NASCAR preview was three pages in Scorecard when in previous years it had a feature, maybe two and a 4-5 page breakdown of Chase contenders.
Don't know if the coverage changes are due more to economic factors or just a general change of editorial philosophy.

The one thing that got me was the big WTF about a cover and an entire issue of ... spring football?

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That was weird. And the false NCAA tourney cover, the one they've done for years, made it confusing. I guess they are trying to get creative and appeal to new people or something.

I still think the content is good, but it is disappearing at a significant rate. I almost would have bought it for the scorecard stuff alone and the notes on the different in-season sports 10 years ago. Now that's down to nothing. Sometimes you get three solid features, sometimes one. The full Jordan issue is too much. I know what Jordan did, if I don't want to read it that's automatically a throw away issue.

I still think the content is good enough for $30 or $40 a year plus the digital issue on the tablet, but it's getting close to me not caring about what's in it.